THE MODERATE UNDERGROUND

By Celia Cohen
Grapevine Political Writer

In ones and twos, the smallish crowd, their coats
pulled close, arrived in the dark out of the rain to
slip inside what was once an abandoned factory.

There was no secret handshake to get in. Things that
start on the right are not good for this group. There
was no password, either, but if there were, people
probably would have been heard to mutter, Nelson
Rockefeller.

This was a gathering of the Moderate Underground.

It took the form of a campaign fund-raiser for Liane
Sorenson, the state Senate's Republican minority whip
from Hockessin, when about 60 people met Wednesday
evening at Timothy's restaurant, fashioned out of the
interior of an old factory mill in Newark.

Sorenson and company are the last of their kind, more
or less. They are moderate Republicans, a shrinking
remnant from their heyday in the late 1980s, when they
ran Delaware with moderate-to-mildly-conservative
officials like Mike Castle as governor, Bill Roth as
senator and Terry Spence -- a labor Republican, for
heaven's sake -- as the speaker in the state House of
Representatives.

Now they are dwarfed between the Democrats, the
dominant power-holders with eight of the nine statewide
offices and the General Assembly, and the Republican
right in their own party.

Sorenson's next race in 2012 has all of the
conviction of a last stand.

Redistricting, the once-a-decade reshuffling of the
legislative lines for population purposes, has lumped
together Sorenson and Dave Sokola, a Democratic state
senator from Pike Creek Valley, in a single district.

Sorenson and Sokola like each other. More in sorrow
than in anger, they have committed to the race against
one another.

Their newly configured Eighth Senatorial District,
stretching northward from Newark through Pike Creek
Valley into Hockessin, looks like, well, actually, like
the side view of a hand with the middle finger extended
-- which is essentially what the map did to Sokola.

Not much of a surprise there. Sokola was one of the
dissidents who failed to unseat Tony DeLuca, a fellow
Democrat, as the Senate's president pro tem and resident
tough guy. They went after the king and did not kill
him.

The new district is almost entirely Sorenson's old
district, further sweetened by a modest shift in voter
registration numbers in her favor.

The new district is 38 percent Democratic, 34 percent
Republican and 28 percent others, according to the
November voter rolls. Sorenson's old district is 39
percent Democratic, 33 percent Republican and 28 percent
others, while Sokola's old district is 41 percent
Democratic, 32 percent Republican and 27 percent others.

The race is a top priority for the Republicans. For
the first time in nearly 40 years, they are in striking
distance of taking over the Senate in the next election
or so because of redistricting and possible retirements.
Sorenson's seat is critical if they are to overturn the
Democratic majority, currently 14-7.

"This is going to be a headliner campaign. This is
going to be one of the most important and one of the
toughest races in the state," said Priscilla Rakestraw,
the Republican national committeewoman, speaking at
Sorenson's fund-raiser.

Both Sorenson and Sokola are tested campaigners. She
kept her seat in 2008 in a huge Democratic year by 364
votes. He kept his seat in 2002 in a huge Republican
year by 277 votes.

"This is going to be a tough year and a tough race,"
Sorenson said.

"It's virtually her current district. I know I have
my work cut out for me," Sokola said.

In recent years, Sokola has benefited from the drift
of New Castle County voters toward the Democratic Party
as the Republican Party moved ever rightward, and
Sorenson has survived through her moderate politics.

Sorenson was the only Senate Republican to vote for
the new civil union law -- Sokola was the prime sponsor
-- and in general is set apart from the "Row of No,"
that is, Colin Bonini, Joe Booth and Dave Lawson, the
Senate's array of Republican conservatives in the back
row. (The "Row" voted "no" on the budget. Sorenson voted
"yes.")

So there at Sorenson's fund-raiser was the Moderate
Underground, fighting for its life. Nick Manolakos and
Mike Ramone, the only Republican state representatives
to vote for civil unions, both attended.

Not that conservative Republicans were absent. Greg
Lavelle, the House minority leader as well as the
party's vice chair, was conspicuous in his attendance,
because too much is at stake to stay away. Lend a
helping hand, maybe keep a watchful eye.

As intense as the race between Sorenson and Sokola is
expected to be, it is not supposed to turn ugly. Her
name was not invoked in a fund-raising letter he sent
out. Neither was his at her event. Moderation in all
things.